Pick up a Book AND Look out the Window

Pick up a Book and Look out Window.

I have had great opportunity to read while traveling west this week. My take away from one book, liturgy of the ordinary by Harrison Warren was to look out the window.  It can be perceived as boring and mundane. We’re reading the book in Sunday School and I am loving it. I love the lessons the author delivers by finding sacred practices in everyday life (subtitle of book).  My reward for putting down the game/book/to-do-  amazing landscapes.  Dramatic colors and formations I don’t get to see every day.

Keeping in this vain while driving south in the Bay area, I took the scenic route and my reward- a delight for all senses- the smell of cedar, the contrast of cool forest and warm beach, crashing waves and tranquil sunlight absorbing sand. Jagged rocks, drop offs, steep hills to climb and flat fields field with produce, beach blending to the horizon.

While taxing on the runway on Wednesday, I looked left for a delightful show- a ground crew using his moves while directing the plane. I just had to capture it on video to share.  I picked up a book yesterday- Together is Better- A Little Book of Inspiration by Simon Sinek.  It may be small but it packed full of great advice!  

Both “Better” and “Liturgy” address passion- a quote I’m quite taken with is by Sinek is “working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress.  Working hard for something we love is called passion.”  The book goes into detail about team work, relationships, leadership, purpose- all things that are what makes Denison Denison and my love of working there. It also ties to my life and how I spend my time.  “Life is beautiful not because of the things we see or things we do. Life is beautiful because of the people we meet” says Sinek.  I’ll go further- the people we share our passion with is what makes life the most rewarding.  Speaking of passion another point that delights me: “find a passion instead of have a passion”.  He urges adventure, experience, quest, search, GO.  Passions don’t appear, they are discovered!  My adventures with Denison, this trip continues to uncover and explain why I value the people I’ve met through Denison.

It is hard to leave my family and Granville AND it is the highlight of my job.  The delight isn’t that I get to go to great cities like San Francisco and Salt Lake City.  It is that I get to engage, meet and be in relationship with people that not only care about Denison but act and inspire. They also share their communities with me.  I am touched by the parents and families committed to Denison through philanthropy and willingness to welcome me. I also can cross paths again (figure eights!) with friendships from long ago (30-year reunion is in site) and people I don’t see often in my life on NG Road. The values these Denisonians and friends execute in today’s world are what connected us at the beginning and why we can just pick up with delight.

As I travel I get to look out the window for inspiration, time to think and process and just be.  I also get a break from the electronic world we live in.  I watched a utube video by Simon Sinek on Tuesday about millennials. It was respectful and positive, but gave criticism on how we’re living our lives. We’re attached to the dopamine rush provided by aps at our finger tips.  We have work to do individually and with our children.  The video is affirmation of the need to look out the window.

We always hear- you can’t do it all.  I often modify this by saying- I can’t do it all at the same time.  This allows me to look to the future and not give up on plans. This week I also say you can’t do it the way you want or think you should.  I can’t tour the country right now- but I can embrace flight time and look down to see the beauty of the earth.  Last year I had a changeover in Vegas. I’ve never been, not sure how high on the priority is for me to go- but I have wanted to see the Hoover Dam.  Lucky me- by flying in and out of Vegas- I could see it the dam from the air.  Better than nothing and a cool perspective.  Better yet I had just finished the book that described the building of a dam. I loved the historic book and a look to the past about people and hard work.  The construction of the Hoover Dam was perilous, all those that took the risks to make it happen, to earn a living. Taking in the view from that flight was even more rewarding coupled with the reading.

I’ll wrap up this blog post as I need to look out the window again and finish the “liturgy” book.  Life on Newark-Granville Road is indeed beautiful for many reasons and at the top of the list is the people.  The people I share my life with and the passions I have for family, friends, education, community and the arts.  I admire and am grateful for other’s passions and engagement, what they read and see and am grateful when we get to share, reflect, a